Leonard,

I had found Jacqueline Key in the 1930 census and got her exact birth and death dates from a family tree hint from the Taylor Family Tree, which is owned by jtat146, and that was as far as I had gotten. The SSDI and Massachusetts Death Index give her dates as 17 May 1926 to 12 May 1997, though the Taylor Family Tree says she was born on 14 May 1926. I tried searching for Jacqueline Key in the New Bedford Standard-Times online archive (I live near New Bedford and have a paper subscription, so it doesn’t cost much more for an all-access subscription online) and came up with the following funeral notice:

CHASE—of [word missing—it’s probably Mattapoisett—JMB], June 12, 1997, Jacqueline K. (Key), 71, wife of Donald H. Chase, mother of Mark Chase, Gail Brides and Leslie Davidson. Relatives and friends are invited to attend a Memorial Service at the Congregational Church Friday, June 27th at 11 a.m. Visiting hours are omitted. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the American Cancer Society, 1115 West Chestnut St., Brockton, MA 02401. Arrangements are by the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Road, [word missing—Mattapoisett—JMB].

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19970615/NEWS0303/306159879&cid=sitesearch

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a full obituary for her. The Standard-Times online is pretty good for the most recent six-or-seven years, but since late last year they messed up some of the entries for earlier years, e.g., obituaries for 2000 completely disappeared, as did many of the obituary photos, and for some years there are photos that are obviously attached to the wrong person or entirely irrelevant. I tried searching the funeral home, Saunders-Dwyer; their database is good, but apparently doesn’t go back far enough. I also tried some other New England papers and general obituary sources, but no luck.

I looked for the rest of the Chase family in the U.S. Public Records Index, Vol. 1, in ancestry.com. It appears that Donald H. Chase was born on 11 February 1925. Donald’s brother Richard E. Chase died in 2009, and according to his obituary, their parents were William H. and Helen G. Chase. In the 1930 census, they were all in Fairhaven.

I found a Gail C. Brides (b. 2 July 1953) living on Cape Cod in Sandwich, at the same address as Brendan William Brides (b. 4 April 1958). I also found a Leslie Chase Davidson (b. 22 Nov 1959) in Sharon, MA, at the same address as Joshua E. Davidson (b. 7 Feb 1959), but the name Mark Chase is too common (no offense to your cousin) for me to be able to pin him down without a location or a spouse’s name, which might have been in an obituary (along with names of grandchildren) if I’d been able to find one. There’s a Mark Chase in Manomet, one in Cohasset, and one in Scituate, all born in the fifties; I found many more (also born in the fifties) in other parts of Massachusetts—and we don’t actually know that he lived in Massachusetts in the 1990s, the period for many of the records in the index.

My experience with the birth dates in the U.S. Public Records Index, Vol. 1 is that they’re generally correct, but I’ve come across obvious errors, such as a father and a son with exactly the same birth date. I’m also suspicious when a husband and wife have exactly the same birth date—it could be correct, but it makes me wonder. I’m reasonably confident about the dates for Gail and Leslie Chase and their spouses.

I wouldn’t have any way of knowing for sure whether Jacqueline had siblings. John and Anna were married near the end of 1915, and the Massachusetts vital records available online from the NEHGS only go as far as the end of 1915. (It seems to me that I read somewhere that the state will soon be making records for 1916-1920 available in the same way, but as far as I know, it hasn’t happened yet.) Just in case, I checked for Key births in New Bedford between 1911 and 1915. There were only two, both born to Uncle Bud’s parents, Walter Key, Sr. and Mary Etchells: Bud’s sister Florence in 1913 and a stillborn girl in 1914. The Taylor Family Tree shows Jacqueline as an only child.

Hope this is helpful,

Jane Brightman

-----Original Message-----
From: Leonard Silva <lensilva@lenstudio.com>
To: brighja <brighja@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Oct 11, 2011 7:32 pm
Subject: RE: John Key/Anna Silva